Caroline carried on, mentioning how Ailsa had all the men in Blackrig running after her. ‘And those, like Greg, who weren’t chasing her, she made a point of chasing them,’ she said. Her face grew grim. ‘Truth was, she was a devil and caused a lot of distress to folk in the village. Her parents were nice people, but they could do nothing with her. They’d brought her here to get her away from a bad crowd in Glasgow, but she just brought the trouble with her. Some of her city boyfriends turned up here too, bringing drugs in to sell. She was taking a cut on that.’

The story rolled on, while Joanne sat mesmerized.

‘She set the village against itself. Then she disappeared and that made it even worse. We all thought at first that she’d skipped it back to Glasgow, but when they couldn’t find her there, her poor parents were devastated and everyone began to suspect one another. We found out through gossip or the police inquiry who’d she been seeing. Many of them married men.’

Joanne listened in silence, not sure why she was being told all of this. Was it designed to put doubt in her head about Greg or to make out he was the only one not caught up in the Ailsa story, because he was in love with Caroline and their coming baby?

Either way, it made her feel bad.

The sound of the approaching Land Rover stopped Caroline mid-story. Nothing was said as they both waited for the door to open and Greg to enter.

Joanne found herself fearful of what his reaction might be at finding them sitting there together, having no doubt been discussing him.

Glancing over at Caroline, she found her demeanour to be much more relaxed than her own.

Forewarned by the presence of the car, which he would obviously recognize as Caroline’s, Greg’s expression when he entered was not one of surprise.

His eyes moved from Joanne to Caroline and back again, clearly wondering what the hell was going on.

‘Good, you’re back.’ Caroline broke the awkward silence. ‘I heard Finn got in a fight with Josh at the hall and that you were there. I came to ask you if you know what they were fighting about.’

‘You should ask Finn,’ Greg said.

‘I can’t. He’s gone off somewhere, which is why I came here,’ she said in a worried tone. ‘Oh my God, he wasn’t part of the gang that smashed up the hot tub was he?’

‘He wasn’t,’ Greg said firmly.

‘How do you know that?’ Caroline demanded.

Greg was silent for a moment and Joanne wondered if he would backtrack on what he’d just sounded so sure about.

‘I think he was angry at Josh for doing that. That’s probably what started it.’